


Welcome to Circo Hadrian

by Yovely



Series: The wonders of Circo Hadrian [1]
Category: King Arthur (2004)
Genre: Acrobat!Galahad, Alternate Universe - Circus, How Do I Tag, Knife-thrower!Tristan, M/M, Tristhad Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 11:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6516700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yovely/pseuds/Yovely
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Glitter and glamour.<br/>This was the world of wonders.<br/>It was Circo Hadrian."</p><p> A King Arthur circus!AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome to Circo Hadrian

**Author's Note:**

> Typical disclaimers. Unbeta-ed, all mistakes are my own.  
> This is set somewhere in 1900-something, so not terribly modern (*psst*justtohidetheunaccurateness*psst*). Might even be some wild fantasy setting, you choose :)
> 
> Happy Tristhad-Week, everyone <3

Out in the dark sky of a typically British cold spring night which lay just above the city of Carlisle the moon and the stars shone in competition with the happenings in the city below.  


Various colourful lights shone in a twinkling sea of people and tents as if to outshine all the celestial bodies in the sky, advertising the places they were attached to, the tents which housed all the cheerful voices who called sweet promises of _freedom, entertainment and adventure_. A steady music accompanied said voices, making them more enthralling to the listener, more inviting just as the equally colorful costumes of the advertisers do.  


The air is permeated with the heady and mouthwatering smell of sweets and other delicacies. Posters aligned on the outskirt of colorful trailers, more like paintings than anything else, because what they were depicting looked like straight out of a fairytale and not of this world. Here in this great place of light and voices and music and sweet aromas, in this place of tents so high, looming on the landscape like royal little castles, this place with its sculptures and its beast, this place was not of this world.  


It was another world.  


A different world. With a different beat than that of one’s usual everyday life. Everything seems to be like a hazy dream, everything was slower, not hurried, no obligations, no expectation other than one’s own, one could not help but rub their eyes a few times, pinch their arm a few times to see if one was awake.  


Glitter and glamour.  


This was the world of wonders.  


It was _**Circo Hadrian.**_

***************************************************************************************************** 

“Welcome! Welcome! Welcome to _Circo Hadrian_ , ladies and gentlemen!” A beautiful woman’s loud voice cheerily beckoned. With her at the centre of everything stood a man, tall and dark haired and with an air of regalty. He waited.  


A tent filled to the brim with wide eyed spectators, adults and children alike, the booming sound of music over the speakers, no particular tone yet, the stage hadn’t been set. Idle chit chat, excitement build as the crowd was made to wait just that tiny bit longer, anticipation flowed through the seat rows like a small but steady current. Then the lights dimmed, all noise turning down and the focus entirely on that man, the one who carried himself like a king in his own castle.  


And when that man spoke, in his voice, loud even though he wasn’t shouting, yet deep and calming, syllabises rolling over his tongue in a timbre like the deep ocean.  


“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to _Circo Hadrian_ , welcome to our world.” He smiled then, into the sea of expectant faces.  


“Please enjoy yourself, while we take you with us on a journey I guarantee you won’t quickly forget.” He winked to some spectators. “  


A few grand gestures, more short instructions and then he ebbed away, the king slinking into the dark lurking just behind him, together with the pretty woman, his queen.  


The show began and it was all colours and grandeur.  


Like out of a fantasy came dancers, they twisted themselves, turned and jumped and all were mesmerized by the movement of their bodies, curling around in the dim lighting to music so sensuous, they seemed like smoke in the air.  
Change of beat, change of flow.  


The dancers seemed to dissipate into the background and forth came a man, tall with short hair and a calm face, accompanied by beasts of which some had manes and some had stripes. He made them dance just like the dancers before had danced, so it seemed, all their focus on his commands, jumping, twisting, rolling, _parading_. Out of seemingly nowhere several rings of fire erected themselves, because the whole focus of the spectators lay with that man, commander of beasts. In front of the eyes of the crowd he nuzzled a lion then, with great love and great care before he nudged the most regal of all his companions towards the rings of hell.  


Inhales of excitement.  


And the great lion jumped, through 3 rings at once, not a hair on its mane aflame, and it landed before roaring kingly into the crowd.  


The others came forward then, aligning themselves to their friend and the man with the sombre eyes followed. He went around in a circle, his beasts following his every step until they did a full circle and came to a stop at where they started. A flourish bow and then he was gone and with him his family of big wild cats.

 *****************************************************************************************************

The show continued, acts of courage and beauty and fantasy and impossibility were shown, more often than not one asked oneself whether what one saw was real or not.  


Besides the music laughter also filled the air, together with outbursts of wonder and remarks of astonishments and a flood of applause. For one could not help but give in and vent the thrumming feeling in ones veins, voice what building inside or all spectators’ tummies.  


The dream continued with a smug magician, still elegant even in his exaggerated flourish of gestures, a few jugglers, a few more acrobats and a man short but portly with shorn hair and strong, oh so strong. And then the music changed yet again.  


Another pair of acrobats but something about them more eye-catching than the others (not that the others were something to scoff at, no not at all). They swung themselves around from up high, coming lower on their garlands of silk. And then _**he**_ was visible completely for the first time, a man dressed in white attire like his partner but somehow even more stunning, managing to glow in the dim lightning like a beacon. He had dark brown curls framing his face and oh, his face with its likeliness to something divine. His lithe form unfurled from the smooth silken fabric curled around his beautiful body, muscles flexing in his flow, as he slowly slid down to the ground. He bend then, back completely arching, one leg curling back into the silk before he twisted, so that he was facing everyone while his one leg remained bend backwards. The acrobat looked like a ballerina in that moment, standing there with one raised leg and slowly turning on the foot which still stood elegantly placed on the ground. A strong arm curled back into the fabric and he lifted himself, rolling his body into the drapes of glossing red silk, twisting himself higher and higher in a sort of erotic dance which accentuated the contours of his frame until one could not clearly make out his face anymore.  


And then he let himself fall.  


With rapid speed he unfurled from the drapes without seeming regard for collision. Women gasped and some even shielded their eyes, the fathers doing the same for their watching children.  


But no impact came. Instead he hang merely by his right foot which was still securely curled around silk. Gently the otherworldly acrobat swung around, reaching for his partner and they entangled themselves before flying around in complicated manoeuvres. It looked like an act of dancing. They spun each other in flight, one time the one acrobat with blonde hair (long and tied back in a bun) reached for his dark haired companion and pulled until the other completely unknotted his limbs from his own drape and hung above the crowd with nothing as support but his partner’s left hand in his own right.  


The music neared its peak and more twisting, more curling around each other, more flying before it faded out in a harmonic tune. The blond acrobat climbed up his silken drape again, slowly disappearing from the crowd’s eyes higher into the dark of the tent.  


His partner though remained.  


The young man with dark curly hair continued in his sensuous movements, flowing around the fabric as if fabric or liquid himself. So enraptured were the people that they almost did not see a big, standing board being brought out followed by a tall man with sandy hair and deep dark eyes. Only then did the acrobat cease his little dance and slid down along the silken drape towards the floor. He let go of his support when both his feet connected with the ground below him and stood tall and gracefully waiting, looking at his new partner. The newcomer began his own elegant walk towards the other man. When they met they stood a while and looked into each other’s eyes. A conversation without words. Then, smiling beautifully the smaller of the two leaned in, almost touching his partner before he leaned back and danced around the other. He in return gave a slight nod of his head.  


The man was taller, broader and older than his delicate partner. He had middle long, sandy hair, with a few braids in it, some strands of hair obscured part of his face. Although it was pretty dark for the viewers one could make out the prominent shapes of this man’s face. A strong, straight nose, and prominent cheekbones. Silver flashed in the dim lighting as said man procured ornate daggers out of his belt.  


The spectators leaned further forward in their seats.  


The light haired male threw a quick succession of blades into the air and began to effortlessly juggle them without cutting himself, which managed to entice a few sounds of amazement from the audience. All the while his partner performed yet another dance, circling around the man. Sometimes one arm or leg would stroke the broader one’s back or shoulder. And then, finally, the older man caught all his shining blades and the younger one briefly pressed himself against his partner’s back before moving to the direction of the big, round board.  


He stood against it with his back, looking at his partner expectantly.  


The lighter haired man with those sharp cheekbones moved towards his partner dressed in white. He pulled out silken scarfs from a bag which lay on the floor just beside the pane of wood and with those in hand he moved and draped himself over the body of the other, standing with his back turned to the audience while facing the smaller man, obscuring both their fronts to the crowd.  


As if in worship for the brunette’s body he slipped his hands over the younger’s torso while tying the scarfs around the wiry limps. After the smaller man was secured against the wooden disk he stepped away and without words pulled out the stashed knives.  


A few grand gestures to bait the spectators’ attention, and then with a last long look towards the other man, he threw.  


Dull thuds of metal meeting wood, wood splitting, held breaths from the people around him.  


His concentration never broke, his dark eyes focused on his partner, whose life lay in his hand. Steady hands lifted the blades and then one knife after the other, in quick succession, with a force so great the whole board together with the man strapped to it trembled with each impact.  


A knife above the outstretched arm, a knife naught but a few centimetres beside the hip, a knife so close to the neck it made the audience gulp and wince. Never wavering. Never straying from its intended course.  


Absolute trust in each other.  


And then the last silver shining blade left the knife thrower’s hands and lodged itself into the wood of the board (just beside the left ear).  


Silence ringed throughout the tent until a single clap was audible and then it turned into many, a sea of applause for the man with the focus of a hawk.  


He allowed himself a smile then (his face never having broken through the stoic mask of it before) and went to his waiting companion to free him from the hard plane and the silken ropes. They took each other’s hands and held them when stepping away from the board and turned to the mass of wide-eyed, clapping spectators. With a graceful bow they showed their thanks.  


The brunette waved his arms at the children, his own young face all alight and eyes twinkling with satisfaction, while his older partner looked at him, silently smiling, only having eyes for the man clad in white in front of him. Just as the other artists before they circled the span out the stage and when they did their round they seemed to fade into the dark, as if just another fantasy, as if a dream.

***************************************************************************************************** 

The night came to an end not so shortly after that and all the artists, the acrobats and dancers, clowns and others stepped into the spotlight of the stage to thank their audience with a few last grand bows.  


Slowly the crowd poured out of the big tent, back into the night and home to their beds and comforts.  


But none would forget the grace with which the dancers had moved, nor the music, nor the acts, and especially not the last one for a long time. One would thrift into dreams and feel themselves still inside the tent, with all its splendour and all its glittering light. And if one would mistake dream for reality that would be understandable because what lies inside the flaps of the tent’s entrance was so elegant in its beauty that it seemed otherworldly at whole.  


Glitter and glamour.  


That was the world of wonders.  


That was _ **Circo Hadrian.**_

**Author's Note:**

> Hej! :D  
> I'm glad you made it through the jumble that was me trying to write a story. Seriously, I can't for the death of me describe anything and here I have tried to set some kind of ominous setting with just too much bodily movements, which I fear I failed terribly at (how does one describe twists and turns without constantly using 'twists and turns'?). ALSO ALL THE UNACCURATENESS *cringe* you might very well know from this alone that I have never ever worked in a circus.....  
> I'm sorry that it's so short, maybe I'll write more pieces to accompany this one with.  
> I'm also sorry for all mistakes regarding punctuation, tenses, grammar or spelling.  
> Furthermore I don't know how to format or tag on AO3, so also sorry for that.
> 
> Still, thank you for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it :)
> 
> Feel free to criticize, for I am eager to learn.


End file.
